Recycling and Garbage

I have a problem.

I have always operated a compost heap. It’s a great way to get rid of all the leftover bits when you do anything with fruit and vegetables. Well now, the city has given me a nice big green bin that will take all the stuff I normally put in my own composter PLUS all the bits you're NOT supposed to because it will attract raccoons and other critters.

Today was our collection day. I only got my green cart last week, but was able to have it almost three quarters full by garbage day. And it is not even the start of the fresh fruit and vegy season! I also had my little green bin, to take stuff to the big green bin, full. That went to my home composter.

This is good. Or is it? What do I do with all the excess plastic left over from my green garbage bag because I had didn't even have enough to fill it? And, hello, I can now put things like greasy pizza boxes, paper bags, facial tissues, freezer paper, microwave popcorn bags, paper napkins, plates and cups, paper towels and waxed paper in my green bin. That is going to cut down on my paper supply for the blue box people. (Are they related to the Blue Man Group?). You can line your bin with a paper bag (hard to come by) or newspapers (have lots). Luckily, the blue box and the green bin are collected by the same people so they should be okay about things.

But I can also now put dryer lint, feathers, (do I have to buy some if I don't have any?), dog hair (have a dog, so I'm okay there), sugar and donuts and flour and meat, all in my green bin. What will the garbage people think when I have less and less for them and more and more for the green bin? Will they maybe stop picking up my garbage all together? I mean I have recycled for a long time, but I have always had a little something to offer them. Am I going to be putting them out of work? I know recycling is a good thing, but will the garbage guys union be angry at me because I don't have my one bag that I am allowed each week? I wouldn't want a picket line in front of my house

Oh, and do I feed my own composter and starve the city's? What will the neighbours think if I don't put out a full green bin? How do I keep my own composter going?

When I go grocery shopping, do I have to remember that I want freezer paper, not Styrofoam for my meat products so that I can recycle them to the green bin? Make sure to get corn with the husks on and carrots with the tops and bananas with the peel (okay that’s stretching it). All good for my green bin! Insist that my grocery store offer me the paper or plastic choice again, because right now I don’t have it and I need the paper bag to line my bin? (Although I can go to one of a number of stores to BUY the bags, but that will use up gas and pollute the air). Should I make sure that I always get my shellfish IN the shell, and my meat ON or at least WITH the bone, my fish with bones and my walnuts WITH shells?

Seems like a hell of a way to go on a diet when you think about it, though. Come home from the grocery store and start putting things away. Shouldn't have bought the bacon. Too much fat and cholesterol. Into the bin!

Did you really need those cookies and that box of donuts? Into the bin!

And, really, jam and mayonnaise, butter instead of margarine, hell as well as margarine. INTO the bin!!!

What about the candy bar? The peanut butter? INTO THE BIN!!

Soon it will become a disorder like compostia continiuum. But that too is good, because then I’ll have to have a newsletter (paper for the bin). And of course we’ll have a meeting each week where I’ll have to serve something. (corn ON the cob, (cobs for the bin) cookies on paper plates, (plates to the bin and uneaten cookies as well), Popsicles (sticks for the bin), coffee, (grounds and filters for the bin).

Oh the possibilities!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi, my name is Sally and I am a composter.

Maybe I am getting a little carried away, but it’s MY blog.

Conspiracy Theory

So I now have this blog thing and even though I am pretty computer literate I am still figuring out how it works. I have been writing things that are on my mind at the moment and entering them on my Blog.

Except I noticed that one or two of my previous postings are no longer there. So…… Ticked off. MAJOR!!!!!!

I’m ready to call the blog police, because how dare they censure what I write. I mean this is a free country and I know the internet is worldwide but hey!!!???

I didn’t get around to it, because I was thinking I’d better be sure. Maybe I didn’t really write that stuff about drivers and what pinheads they can be. Maybe it’s more than the internet/blog police. Maybe it’s the whole government. I mean they get lots of money from drivers and stuff, what with taxes on everything and license plates and the revenue from tickets.

Still didn’t write to anyone, because I got busy with other more important things, like my kitchen sink breaking.

Then yesterday as I am writing about said kitchen sink, I post it and one of my previous posts goes missing. WTF!!??

They’re really watching me now. Look over my shoulder. No one there. Backstep my page to see how this could have happened and realize that it wasn’t the government or Big Brother or even the owner of my Blog page.

No, it was even worse. It was me. Yes, I did it. Turns out that I bookmarked the right page and the wrong page and have been using the wrong one by mistake. I now have that little problem fixed so from now on all my little pearls of wisdom and insight should show up.

Unless, as any true Coast to Coast radio show listener will know, they really are out there watching. I have just been tricked into believing it was my mistake.

An aside to this stuff. I am so glad the Hippies won the Amazing Race. They were, for the most part, the nicest young people they have had on there in a long time.

Men

The REAL Reason Men Invented Plumbing

As I have said before I am on disability, so it is hard for me to do things. I have a nice wooden step ladder that is just the right size for me to sit at the sink to do dishes. There are only the two of us in the house so I don't have many dishes to do. Now, I use to hate doing dishes, but lately I have gotten into this domestic goddess routine, and conservation thing, where I wash my dishes every night; by HAND!!!

Been doing this for about six months. Last night, I did them all, set them to dry and pulled the stopper. Strange noise. You don't really notice the water draining out every night until it suddenly changes sound. I thought it warranted looking at, so I did and what do I find but all my dish water under the sink!! Lucky for me the people we bought the house from lo those many years ago seemed to think they needed a hole for the pipe that was the same size as what you'd use to put a street pipe through. Most of the water went straight through and landed in the basement, fortunately, again, not on anything that could be damaged.

The pipe broke, (BROKE!) right below where it attaches to the sink. Too aggressive in my dish washing techniques? I don't know.

Oh well.

Course if I'd needed a new sink that probably would mean new taps. And you can't have those without getting a new counter. Then the cabinets would make the counter look bad, so I'd better replace those. Then what colour tile do I get for the floor? Oh, and the walls will need repainting. Probably a new ceiling and pot lights…….

Then, the furniture would look terrible so that will have to be replaced. Oh, Oh, Oh, NEW APPLIANCES!!! Stainless Steel of course. Then we should really expand out over the deck and make that a nice little back room/ family/sitting/breakfast nook type room. With a fireplace and maybe another TV. Oh, a hot tub!! What colour should I get the settee in?

Alas, it turns out that the piece that broke is replaceable. All this means I don't need a new sink.

And THAT is why some man came along and became a plumber.

Don't ever let them tell you it was because they were thinking of us.